We are spiritual beings and there is a direct relationship between what is spiritual and what is secular. I am not for binary distinctions, but bear with me.
The spiritual is defined by transformation and the secular by conservation. It is safe to say that we are living in conservative times that are neither transformative, meaning-making, discerning nor reflective.
Today, there are numerous intermediaries involved in teaching and learning. This is good because it means that the democratization of knowledge is possible. Thoughts are posted, liked, shared, and even critiqued—all for the purpose of knowing and discerning, which is positive.
Teaching is a holy practice of developing learning communities for the sake of justice, growth, healing, and intentionality. Teaching takes knowledge as a revelatory instrument extended to humanity’s journey and proceeds to a futuristic next.
The root causes or underlying shifts happening in education today are weakening the sacred nature of teaching and are also having a harmful impact on students’ learning. This is occurring due to executive orders, the condemnation of the other, the growth of totalitarianism, and political leaders exceeding their power while weakening communities.
On July 29, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice released a “Guidance for Recipients of Federal Funding Regarding Unlawful Discrimination.” A few days later, the Governor of Puerto Rico signed legislation that allows parents to decide whether or not to allow their children to be taught sexual education in public schools. These politicized documents take the holiness of teaching, embed their ideological perspectives, and allow ignorance and violence across communities and individuals that power structures do not wish to protect.
Teaching as a craft, practice, dialogue, process, and instrument is being questioned. As a well-known example, historical higher education institutions have been wrestling with laws that make teaching a struggle.
By the way, these institutions are “historical” not just because of their longevity, but because of their impact and representational power for the “least of these” they have enacted for centuries.
Teaching becomes secular when it is forced to indoctrinate and not for critical thinking.
Teaching becomes secular when silence is the objective and dialogue is addressed as subversive.
Teaching becomes secular when hierarchy is law and community is unlawful.
Teaching becomes secular when power is driven toward division instead of liberation.
Teaching becomes secular when privilege disarms equality.
Teaching becomes secular when it is a form of oppression and not transformation.
This is all interesting because we live in times when a type of Christianity is valued as essential for the preservation of society. But what we find in the Gospels is the belief that, for the Great Commission to be effective, Jesus is clear: “Teach them to obey everything I’ve taught you” (Matthew 28:20).
What does Jesus teach us? Welcome the stranger, love our neighbor, care for the widow, orphan, and people experiencing poverty. Jesus teaches us to go near the sick, the criticized, the oppressed, and the lost.
But when teaching becomes secular, we lose love. And when love is lost, the enemy wins. When diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and otherness are defined as wrong, the embrace of the gospel is weakened and learning becomes a thing of the past.
Teaching becomes secular when it conserves hate and not love. Teaching must be experienced as a spiritual process—a love experience, a God-given process.
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